Episode 1630
My top 10 ways to save money in your home
With things so expensive out there, this week in our first hour we talk about those things around the house that can save you money. Some of these projects pay for themselves pretty quickly and others even have money that help pay for them right up front. Here are my tricks and tips!
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Mentioned in this episode:
A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard
For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/
Baldwin Hardware
Transcript
[00:00:27] Eric Goranson: So maybe they go outside the house three or four feet and drop right in. Well, the problem is, is. That water loves to find its way back down. And if you have a foundation league, I have seen people that there's some pump is running 15 hours a day. And as soon as we extend it
[:[00:01:18] Eric Goranson: So round the House Northwest you can find out there as well. Well, today we are talking everything about your home and we're gonna talk about the. Top 10 ways to save you money around your house. Now, there's a lot of different things, you know, and, and we're coming into the winter time. So it's a good time to start talking about stuff that's costing you money right now.
[:[00:01:56] Eric Goranson: So we'll keep working on that. Well, today, the first one I wanted to talk [00:02:00] about and our top 10 things to save money around your house is the first one on the list is using your dishwasher correctly. Now, this is always a controversial subject, but it is an important one because that dishwasher, if used correctly, is more efficient.
[:[00:02:42] Eric Goranson: And the other thing is, is make sure that you're not rinsing those dishes before you put them in because you've heard me probably say this before. But the important part of this is making sure that you have food on your dishes when it starts to activate the enzymes in the, uh, in the cleaner [00:03:00] itself. So those cleaners.
[:[00:03:19] Eric Goranson: Now, if you have a very cheap dishwasher, something that was probably under 400 in its day, or if you've got one that's not working correctly, and you say, well, that's the only way I have to do it. Well, you're just wasting a lot of money. So I'd either get it repaired or get one that is of, uh, Good working order that does a good job of that.
[:[00:04:06] Eric Goranson: You know, if you think about it, dishwashers use anywhere from about 4 gallons per wash. And so hand washing uses five times as much water as an efficient dishwasher. And so that, um, you know, that really tells you where you're spending your money on it. And so that's really important to take a look at. So you don't want to be wasting that water because you're paying for it.
[:[00:04:58] Eric Goranson: That is a heat pump [00:05:00] water heater. That is, I replaced my 40 gallon gas with an electric heat pump water heater that is 80 gallons. Now I wanted to put in a bigger unit, uh, just because I did have the space and I wanted to make sure that we never ran out of water with our, our nice steam shower and everything else going.
[:[00:05:42] Eric Goranson: And what I like about the heat pump water heaters, I've got a Bradford white, which I really like that model is solid. And what I like about it, it's the only repairable one out there. So if something, it was to ever break, I don't have to get rid of the whole unit. Um, I can actually get parts for it. Um, and it's not just a throwaway now, [00:06:00] second of all, with the heat pump water heater is it, uh, it really does a great job of heating water and there is a backup.
[:[00:06:29] Eric Goranson: If you need them mine, I don't have to, I have mine set on heat pump only. And, uh, only when I need to really have it where I know that we're going to be using a lot of it, you know, do I change over into that hybrid mode? And so, um, great example, when I was filling up my hot tub, I used it because it was going to be more efficient than using the heaters in the, uh, In the tub itself.
[:[00:07:18] Eric Goranson: This can be a huge deal. And if you've got electric water heater and you got a little bit of space, or if it's in a basement or your garage or something like that, they work really well. Now, a couple of things that you will need when you're talking heat pump water heaters, so you need a little space. It needs to be at a, uh, a room that has enough air, cubic feet of air, depending on the size.
[:[00:08:02] Eric Goranson: It does have condensing, so it will condense a little bit of heat right there with that heat. It, uh, you know, gives off a little bit of that, but, uh, that's okay. And that's the thing with these. They work really well, so it gives off water like your air conditioner would if it's humid. But, uh, super important, and it saves you a ton of money.
[:[00:08:41] Eric Goranson: If it's a heat pump, I'd have them out once or twice a year, depending on what they recommend and set up yourself for a, uh, you know, especially if you've got a gas furnace, I want them to be testing the gas pressure. I want somebody to be testing all of those things. So the big part here is making sure that it's tuned up, that it's working at a hundred percent.[00:09:00]
[:[00:09:20] Eric Goranson: You want to make sure that you've got that working great. So. HVAC tune up. You should be doing that every year, at least once, if not twice a year, and make sure that filter is getting changed. I change those a little early because I just want mine to work at its best efficiency. And of course, the thicker they get with junk, the more stuff, uh, Limits air flow so you have less heat or cooling coming through it.
[:[00:10:08] Eric Goranson: save you money. Welcome back to the Around the House show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. What we've been talking about here are my top 10 ways to save money around your house. And if you're just joining us on the radio or last segment, we were talking about using your dishwasher correctly.
[:[00:10:48] Eric Goranson: Like you had a window open and that is sealing up those doors and windows, making sure my old front door, I could see daylight underneath it. There wasn't enough adjustment in it. It [00:11:00] was pretty well hammered. Not much we could do about it. And, uh, I didn't want to restore it. I did save it, but it was just something that had just been abused way too long from renters and owned the house before and everything else.
[:[00:11:36] Eric Goranson: So that's one that, uh, pretty easy to do. Take a look, get things adjusted. Can always go buy some weather stripping from your local home improvement store and get on that so getting that sealed up And there is some really good spray foam If you've got things that you need to spray foam like a new door put in stuff take a look at the stuff that has The low expansion that's meant for doors and windows works pretty well without bringing things out of level or breaking it up So make sure that you're using the right [00:12:00] foam in the right condition And if you've got foam you're gonna use to keep things from coming outside in like around Pipes or anything like that, make sure that you get the stuff that's rodent rated because they make stuff.
[:[00:12:25] Eric Goranson: But the new stuff works pretty darn good. I've never had him eat through that before trying to get in. So something to think there. Now the next one is a big one. And I want to talk about this for a minute using a home energy monitor. Now, these are things and that, that really save you money. Now I have one called sense.
[:[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: And so the cool thing with a home energy monitor is that you get to see what's costing you money and what's not. You know, when I was a kid, it was always, keep the lights turned off, that costed us money. Well, now with LED lights, that's such a small part of your electric bill anymore, that really the LED lights aren't the big issue anymore.
[:[00:13:49] Eric Goranson: So, sometimes you can take a look at it and go, wow, I need to upgrade that fridge because that's costing me a ton of money. Because it's either leaking or it's inefficient or it's just a big energy hog. [00:14:00] So those are things that you can start to take a look at to see what's costing you money. And that's a big one right there.
[:[00:14:26] Eric Goranson: So my goal really is to track those and make sure that I'm watching to see what the energy usage is so I can identify it and upgrade things that go. So take a look at sense. It's a great product that basically hooks into your power box. And there's a couple of leads that go around the incoming lines that come in on the two legs.
[:[00:15:04] Eric Goranson: So something to take a look at. It's really helpful on trying to see where you're spending the money and what it's going to cost you. So a really good idea to do this. Next up on the list, we've got a good one here. Adding insulation. This is something that pays off really quickly, and it's amazing how much it does.
[:[00:15:44] Eric Goranson: I could actually get it installed for nearly the same price, if not a little bit less. So why would I will go do that? But like for instance, on my house here, as I've been doing remodeling, like when I had the front of my house off to do the, I took it down to the studs to do [00:16:00] that, uh, front cladding project.
[:[00:16:31] Eric Goranson: And so I swapped that out with rockwool and I've been going around as I do it and swapping it out with an R19 and getting much better insulation in there. Uh, than that are 11. So I've been going through and insulating my house and really increasing that. So this is 1 of those things. And of course, that's fireproof and, uh, I have to worry about mold or anything else like that.
[:[00:17:17] Eric Goranson: So I would do your research around what those are and what it can, what you can do to get, you know, take advantage of those free money is free money. And when you're doing something like this, it's going to add value and it's going to save you on your, uh, electricity or gas or oil or whatever you're heating your home with.
[:[00:18:05] Eric Goranson: You can end up having where You get mold and mildew and things like that and cause other issues So making sure that you're understanding what you're doing when you're insulating and making sure that you're not causing other issues. So insulation Can be a lot harder when it comes to building science and something you really need to understand before you do it.
[:[00:19:06] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show. This is where I help you get the most out of your home through information and education. We've been talking about my top 10 ways to save money around your house. And I've got a little one here. That's not on the list. I want to talk about here. But a slide of Dan, and this is one thing that you can do with your subscriptions.
[:[00:19:47] Eric Goranson: But for instance, with my satellite radio, if I'm listening to that, well, that can cost me 35, 40 bucks a month if I stay on their plan, which is their standard [00:20:00] rate. But if I call up and say, hey, guys, this is too much money. And I'm not doing it anymore because I've, I've been a customer forever. I just, um, I'm going to cut back on my expenses and all of a sudden I'm paying seven or 8 a month.
[:[00:20:37] Eric Goranson: Go, Hey guys, um, this is crazy expensive. What do you have? And sometimes you're going to have, Hey, I'm in the best price. Great. But what you want to do is to get through and talk to that customer retention specialist. So if you can get out of customer service and get transferred to their customer retention people.
[:[00:21:17] Eric Goranson: So that's a really good way to do that. So take some time, go through in any one of those subscriptions that, uh, you know, you're not going to probably do that with your Netflix subscription, but a lot of these other things, absolutely. They're trying to keep you there and might as well get the best use of your dollars.
[:[00:21:49] Eric Goranson: So 1st, when we talked about was using your dishwasher correctly. 2nd, 1 was thinking about a heat pump water heater. Third one was HVAC tune up and filter change. Fourth [00:22:00] one was going around and making sure your doors and windows are sealed up and in good working order. Number five of this list halfway through is using a home energy monitor.
[:[00:22:37] Eric Goranson: Now, a blower door test is where they sit there with the, um, with a fan. In a doorway that's open and they create a vacuum inside the house and they see how much air is getting pulled in. And so they can measure how much air is being lost within the home. And that's a really big deal because that's telling you how much fresh air is coming in.
[:[00:23:19] Eric Goranson: And so those are pretty handy to go around with and see where things are wet, where they're not, where the rod is. And, uh, you can really start to get an idea because wet insulation when it's fiberglass does not insulate as well if it was dry, so you can really see those energy losses. So those are good things to do.
[:[00:23:57] Eric Goranson: Maybe you go look at it. Go. Wow, there's nothing here that we [00:24:00] can do We're as good as we're gonna get this for now, and then maybe maybe you move on to other things So that's a that's a good one right there to really give yourself a report card on how much Energy you're spending on your house. So there's 1 right there.
[:[00:24:43] Eric Goranson: So when you think about toilets, for instance, if you go through and replace one of the, like with the, uh, water sense toilets, you know, something that's using like 1. 28. or less gallons per flush. This is a really big deal because this [00:25:00] adds up quickly. So these new toilets can reduce, you know, water used by 20 to 60 percent or more.
[:[00:25:33] Eric Goranson: S. Uh, with water since labeled toilets, we'd actually be looking at about a 360 billion gallons of water per year. That's not being wasted. So that's a lot now. It's interesting. A household leak can waste about 180 gallons per week of water and toilets are usually the case in that. So, you know, that's the flapper or any of these other [00:26:00] things that could be happening with with a leak.
[:[00:26:27] Eric Goranson: Uh, if you're looking to replace toilets, that's who I go with is Toto is the most likely culprit to replace with because I tell you what, they are, they make more toilets and American standard and Kohler combined. You just don't see them in your home centers, but go to your plumbing store, get one of these.
[:[00:27:05] Eric Goranson: Now, like I said, if you're on a well and, uh, you're not paying for that, well, I guess it doesn't really matter. It's not really something that's costing you and it's cold water. But take a look if you're paying for water. And if you have water rates that are expensive like mine, then, uh, these can really help you out on saving money and, uh, 140 bucks a year is a pretty good place to start for savings.
[:[00:27:49] Eric Goranson: Uh, as the, uh, as the older ones, because of the, you know, the finishes on some of the good toilets. So, take a look at the Totos with their coating on it, because that coating will make it so things don't stick. [00:28:00] And, uh, that makes for a cleaner toilet overall. So, uh, take a peek at that and, uh, make sure that you're caring for them correctly.
[:[00:28:25] Eric Goranson: We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.[00:29:00]
[:[00:29:19] Eric Goranson: A heat pump, water heater, HVAC, tune up and filter change, sealed doors and windows. Get those sealed ups. You're not wasting energy coming in and out, using a home energy monitor to see what is actually going on in your house, where you're spending your money, and then adding insulation and checking for those rebates to see if you can get some free money from others.
[:[00:29:58] Eric Goranson: Is 1 that I've caught [00:30:00] really causing problems for people out there. So, this is 1 that I've seen running and I've kind of, um, I've kind of laughed because. This is something that can cost you a ton of money if you're not paying attention to it. In our next hour, we're going to talk a little bit more about this type of stuff.
[:[00:30:39] Eric Goranson: And if you have a foundation leak, I have seen people that there's some pump is running 15 hours a day. And as soon as we extend it out and take that water drain and get it well away from the foundation, guess what happens. We're good. We don't have as much energy usage because we're not pumping the water [00:31:00] out to a place.
[:[00:31:26] Eric Goranson: And 20 minutes later, it's back in that back in there. That tells me one thing that tells me that we've got a fountain going and you're paying for that. So there's no reason to be running that, uh, high amp, some pump when it's incorrectly draining. So make sure that that's going out to the right spot. And, uh, that is a really big one right there.
[:[00:32:08] Eric Goranson: Now, the last one on our list today is taking a look at laundry. Now, the laundry appliances you have, yeah. Are something that can be using a lot of energy. For instance, your electric dryer, there is a new dryer out there that is saving you tons of money. A heat pump dryer actually uses about 40 to 50 percent less energy than your standard electric dryer.
[:[00:32:49] Eric Goranson: So it does take a longer to run, but in doing that, you're not, you're not sending all that heat outside. So it's staying within the machine itself. So it's a lot more efficient. [00:33:00] And so, it's going through, it's heating the air, it's putting it through a compressor that makes it even hotter, and that hot air is pushed back into the dryer.
[:[00:33:25] Eric Goranson: To get things dried out, but it is a really efficient way of doing it. Now you've heard me talk about front load, front load washing machines. I have been a fan for decades. I've probably had a front load machine for the last 20 plus years and they work really well. You just have to get a decent brand.
[:[00:34:10] Eric Goranson: So that's got the big tower in it with the plastic piece in the middle that agitates. Now, if you look at some of the more efficient top load models that have an impeller washer in their front load washers are still 25 percent more energy and water efficient. So it's just not close. Now, here's the difference here is that that front load machine also uses a lot less energy in that it's not beating your clothes up as much.
[:[00:34:57] Eric Goranson: So, that's where you want to spend your time. So, I'm [00:35:00] really a big fan of the front load machine. Now, some people will sit there and complain about, oh my gosh. We have all of this mold in our unit. Well, just like anything, you have to take care of it. Your top load machine will get moldy in between the two drums.
[:[00:35:36] Eric Goranson: You won't have to ever have to worry about that. They were, they were original ones that came out in the U S kind of had a, a bad issue with mold getting in there. Cause it was a dark, humid place. So now they've got steam cleaning functions and things like that. So I've got an LG I've never had a problem with it when it's due to put it through it'll tell me hey about the time that I go I can smell that it's getting a little [00:36:00] funky.
[:[00:36:19] Eric Goranson: But really, I mean, it is crazy how much energy we're wasting on those. You think about it, there's about, um, what is there about 59 million top load clothing washers that are in use today across the U S. If we change those out to front load washers, we'd save about 14. 9 billion kilowatts of energy and 170 billion gallons of water every year.
[:[00:37:14] Eric Goranson: They're just really reliable units. And so. If you buy a good one, they will hold up and, uh, you'll get a lot of use out of them. Now, you can go out and spend a ton of money and get, um, some of the ultra high end brands. But really, if you're getting something like an LG or some of these other more basic brands, you'll get a lot of years out of them.
[:[00:37:59] Eric Goranson: And see where the [00:38:00] savings are going to help you or not help you. And if you've got some things that you want to share that, uh, maybe you've got some tips on saving money, how did you save money? Head over to AroundTheHouseOnline. com, hit the contact me button over there. And, uh, that will come into my inbox and I would love to see what your tips are.
[:[00:38:40] Eric Goranson: That comes out each and every week and we do have our premium membership where we have my whole backstory. I get into a lot of it. I mean, I didn't give you the whole, the whole thing, but I tell you what, there are some crazy stories that I told over on the premium side. So we do have one premium episode up.
[:[00:39:12] Eric Goranson: And what you can be doing to have a healthier home as well as one that holds together, uh, whether you've got damage or anything else, it is going to be a basement and crawl space issue. So we'll get into that just as soon as around the house returns.
